Niki Rudolph

What would you do?

The #SAchat this past week was a great conversation about how we respect and celebrate various religious observances on our campus. Once our fearless transcribers are able to provide the transcript, I highly recommend revisiting the chat.

I know that discussions about religion have the potential to become contentious, or even mildly awkward. However, I think understanding the faith based grounding of much of our educational system is essential in determining how we move forward. Many of us seek to create environments that respect all faiths, but we cannot deny that many schools (K-12 primarily) will be closed tomorrow (although few will label it as a Good Friday closure), that our academic calendar was built around an agricultural calendar, and our semester breaks conveniently still fall around the Christmas holiday.

So, what would you change? If you were president of the university, if you were Arne Duncan, if you had the ability to make changes and offer solutions, what would you do? The problem is that not all religions are created equal in our American educational system, so what do you propose as part of the solution?

Please be part of this conversation. Comment, share, and listen to others ideas.